Spain's energy law in transition: RDL 7/2025

published on July 3, 2025

Immediate measures to strengthen the resilience of the Spanish electricity grid, including the extension of approval deadlines for renewable energy plants under construction and development.

On June 25, 2025, the new Real Decreto-ley 7/2025 on strengthening the resilience of the Spanish electricity grid was published in the Spanish Official Gazette. The new regulation is an immediate response to the incident on April 28, 2025, which caused a nationwide power outage in Spain.

RDL 7/2025 aims to improve the security, stability, and efficiency of the system while achieving cost savings for consumers. The focus is on increased supervision, the promotion of storage technologies and flexibility in the system, and the accelerated expansion of the electrification of the economy.

In addition, a large number of renewable energy plants currently under development and construction will be given more time to meet the last of the five statutory approval deadlines, which had already expired before the new regulation came into force on June 25, 2025.

Extension of the deadline for the so-called “5th milestone”

Art. 32 (3), whose provisions came into force the day before, on June 24, 2025, offers an extension of the final approval deadline for plants in the planning and construction phase that were at risk of missing the deadline due to delays.

This 5th and final so-called milestone (Art. 1.1.a 5.º, Art. 1.1.b 5.º RDL 23/2020) is the obtaining of the provisional operating license. Until now, failure to meet this milestone by the end of June 2025 automatically resulted in the invalidity of the access and connection permits (caducidad automática de los permisos de acceso y conexión). With the newly introduced regulation, the deadline for meeting this milestone is automatically extended until September 25, 2025.

During this short (automatic) extension period (i.e., from June 25, 2025, to September 25, 2025), plant operators now have time to apply for an extension of the deadline to a total of 8 years (max. until June 25, 2028) by means of a separate application. The application for this extension must be submitted within two months of the regulation coming into force (June 24, 2025). The competent authority then has four months to decide on the application; otherwise, it is deemed to have been rejected.